Between March 19 and 31, an inspection team from the National Food Safety Inspection visited 36 Hofer stores across Slovenia. In 17 of the inspected stores, the team found 68 products that were sold under the “Quality from Slovenia” label but were not in fact of Slovenian origin or provenance.

Dalmatian prosciutto sold as a Slovenian product
Hofer described its “Quality from Slovenia” label as follows: “We support Slovenian quality and promote fair relationships. HOFER strives to offer its customers as many high-quality Slovenian products as possible.” The National Food Safety Inspection found that Dalmatian cold cuts sold under the “Quality from Slovenia” label were actually made and packed in Croatia. The National Food Safety Inspection found more such items, but most of them were just placed on the wrong shelf.

Milk and milk products removed from shelves
Hofer had to remove three types of milk, yoghurt, and kefir from its shelves because they were labelled as “Quality from Slovenia” but were in fact made in Austria. “The milk was sourced from Slovenian farms but processed and bottled by Hofer in Austria. Therefore, the product must be labelled as ‘Of Austrian Origin’,” said Andreja Bizjak, the head of the National Food Safety Inspection. Moreover, the country of origin was not specified on the cartons.

Hofer: “We’re in the process of changing the packaging and the shelf labels”
Hofer said that the items were mislabelled due to human error, adding that the issue was fixed immediately. “The ‘Quality from Slovenia’ label is movable because sometimes the items are moved to a different part of the store,” Hofer said in a statement. They said that they recently changed their labelling system to prevent such issues from happening in the future, and that they’re in the process of changing the labelling on the aforementioned milk and milk products. Hofer stressed that the Austrian supplier is clearly mentioned on the packaging, but they will change the packaging nonetheless.

A fine of 17 times EUR 6000 for legal persons
Hofer now faces a fine of 17 times 6000 euros as a legal person – plus an additional 17 times 600-1800 euros for the persons responsible. The National Food Safety Inspection announced that in future all major supermarket chains in Slovenia would be subject to such inspections.